Death of a Gryphon
by McGeesJabberwock
Summary: One-shot. Semi-alternate take on the Gryphon's death.


Victory was assured.

While coughing from the smoke and cringing from the stench of the Queen's domain, the Gryphon's wings beat quickly as he surveyed the area. The Jabberwock was hiding. Of course he was. He knew what was coming, and so he backed down. The Queen's minions were all cowards though, weren't they? The Card Guards always retreated when the Gryphon would make his appearance; it made them more difficult to destroy, but knowing their true colours had kept the Gryphon fighting. The civilians thought the Queen was some cunning, intellectual foe; in some ways, war does truly make one wiser.

True, he had read a lot of war poetry in school. English was his favourite subject after all. All those words dedicated to the futility of war, about how the soldiers should look at things through the side of the opposition. There was no need for any of that nonsense here though, for all these Card Guards, these Jabberspawn, they were literally formed by pure evil, they came from unclean thoughts, self-doubt and various nasty emotions. Being created through pure emotion, they did not exactly excel in intelligence. The Gryphon, however, was not born in this land, so he had no such distinction. Fighting these creatures had made the Gryphon wonder what beings might thrive in his head, but he had told himself not to focus on his own personal demons when fighting someone else's.

This was all for Alice. Yes. She was supposed to be the one prophesised to rid this land of the plague that had befallen it, but that probably had more to do with her being the land's creator rather than the saviour. While he didn't exactly distrust her to fight off the world's malevolence, he knew that a malnourished teenager like Alice should certainly have as much help as possible. And where better to turn than a magnificent beast of the skies?

Alice had been a fine aid though – freeing him from the Hatter's cage, distracting the Jabberwock. He couldn't have come this far without her, and because of this, he had to treasure her presence. Such cooperation was hard to find in these times. The Mock Turtle, his most trusted companion for so many years, had bailed on him during that fateful battle with the Hatter. The Turtle, lucky thing, got away, but the Gryphon still languished away in that cage, awaiting a devilish torture. His freewill could have been drained away from him, and he could have served in the Queen's army as a biomechanical zombie.

He had no need for Alice now though, and he certainly didn't need the Turtle. The Jabberwock, that cowardly, pretentious fool, had fled, but the Gryphon was going to find him. Surely that palava about needing his eye to defeat him...well, the Jabberwock was missing that eye now. What chance did he have? The Gryphon wasn't even trying during that battle, and yet he had his quarry flee. Now he'd destroy the Jabberwock once and for all, and maybe move on to the Red Queen.

Yes, for he had to protect Wonderland. He may not have been born there, but it was a significant part of his history. He had attended school there for several years, all the while amazed that an entire world could be formed from the imagination of a young girl, and had even attended many of the Red Queen's croquet games, before she showed her true colours. He may have raised a family in another land, but Wonderland had significance to him, and being a soldier, he had to fight for its freedom.

And fight he would.

Feeling a light-headed from the rising heat, the Gryphon forced himself to focus, as he heard the turning of gears and the puffing of smoke that usually heralded the appearance of this minion of the Queen. There, on a large rock, sat the Jabberwock, his feet dangling above the lava. He looked like he was languidly fishing. Diving quickly, the Gryphon landed before him.

'Ah, so you came.' The Jabberwock rose, his tail flicking. 'I'm surprised.'

'This ends now,' said the Gryphon, his eagle claws digging into a nearby stone.

'It certainly will,' replied the Jabberwock, who flexed his claws, admiring them, 'But I will give you one last chance to leave.'

The Gryphon snarled.

'You know that you have little chance against me. You are a mere mortal while I am fuelled by ever-growing guilt, which constantly feeds me. And do you not have a family?'

Keeping his eyes on the Jabberwock, the Gryphon backed away.

'How do you think they will feel when I annihilate you?'

The two foes stared at each other, both heavily breathing. Or, in the Jabberwock's case, what substituted for breathing. The Gryphon stared at the Jabberwock – the furnace in the stomach, the pipes protruding from his back, the gears jutting from his shoulders. Such a thing could have happened to the Gryphon had Alice not come to his rescue, and the mere reminder of that predicament sent him rising up into the air, dodging the flames of the Jabberwock's breath.

Noticing his feathers tinged from the fire, the Gryphon rose into the sky, raising himself above the jagged peaks and pools of lava. He searched for the Jabberwock again. Nowhere to be found.

The coward.

No, there was that familiar shadow looming over him...turning around, he bared his avian claws...

A slash.

The Jabberwock attacked first, causing the Gryphon to descend slightly before regaining himself. Baring his claws again, he tried to repay the favour, before the Jabberwock transformed into a blur and rose even higher, a bat-like blot against the red sky. Swooping to the left to avoid the inevitable assault attempt, the Gryphon beat his wings faster, awaiting his prey.

He fell.

His eyes may have been fixed on the Jabberwock's silhouette, but the beast still attacked. He still swiped at the Gryphon. The Gryphon still found himself plummeting from the Heavens, his wings refusing to beat further.

Slam.

He fell upon the rock, unable to move except make his claws twitch. His wings. He tried to make them propel him again, but they refused to respond.

'You brought this on yourself,' he heard the Jabberwock say, 'I _had_ to do this, you had a choice.'

The gleaming crimson of the Queen's domain grew dimmer and darker, so the Gryphon tried to keep his eyelids open, and he managed to do so long enough to see Alice approach. As she came closer, the Gryphon thought of his daughter back home, and wished Alice would speak with that mellifluous voice, so he could imagine his offspring saying goodbye to him.

'I hoped you would come, Alice,' said the Jabberwock, 'It's time we put an end to these silly games, isn't it?'

That Alice, so impulsive.

She ran to the Jabberwock with her blade without saying a word, letting the screeches and slicing speak for themselves. That sense of confidence came creeping back into the Gryphon's gut as he heard the painful cries of his foe, so at least he had that to end upon.

With the darkness eclipsing his vision, he could only imagine how the battle was going. His mental images of the Jabberwock falling before the beam of his own eye was the last thing he saw.

* * *

She sat by the window and waited. The messenger was sure to return again. That white pawn from Wonderland, who came a while ago to tell her and her child that the Gryphon had escaped the lair of the Mad Hatter and he and the Wonderland army were on their way to carry out an assault on the Red Queen's castle. It would involve him taking on the Queen's greatest minion – the draconic Jabberwock – and she knew that her husband had experience in battling dragons. Her daughter had known that since her younger years, when she would re-enact her father's battles with her toys.

Sure enough though, that white pawn came hopping down the path and she took a deep breath before answering the door. Her daughter flew into the scene, her wings still flapping even as she was in place.

'Is this about my husband?'

'Yes...it's about the Jabberwock..'

Her child's grin grew wider.

'They had a battle...and...'

The wife came closer but the child descended.

'He..'

'That's right. I'm very sorry.'

The two female gryphons could only stand still.

The pawn continued, 'I assure you the Jabberwock has been destroyed, and we are doing everything in our power to dethrone the Queen. His death will not be in vain.' The pawn grew as silent as the gryphons. 'I am very sorry. Is there anything I can do for either for you?'

The wife shook her head and the child retreated inside.

'Your husband was a brave creature.'

'Please keep me informed about the war.'

After the paw had hopped away, she returned to the kitchen table where she had awaited this message. Playing with an empty bowl, she looked out of the window again, hoping someone else would come to debunk what the messenger said. That's it – what he had said was a joke, wasn't it? She heard her child upstairs muttering to herself about how it couldn't be true, and she certainly couldn't mistrust her own daughter.

Messengers arrived to the house over the past few days. The news of the war was mostly positive; it had not been without further casualties, but the Queen's forces had been weakened considerably and Alice was facing off against the Queen herself. They never mentioned her husband or his role during the wars, and neither did she. Neither did her daughter, who listened from atop the stairs. She would sometimes entertain the thought that since this world was borne from Alice's mind, Alice could bring back her husband were the Red Queen ultimately defeated. He was not born of that world though, so it did seem unlikely.

A few days later, an ecstatic pawn came bouncing to their home, singing a ditty to himself as he did so. Upon opening the door, the wife was greeted by a great 'WE WON', that had even her daughter scrambling down the stairs. Yes, the Queen had been defeated, and Wonderland was restored.

The song and dance didn't last long.

Many of the fallen Wonderland creatures had been revived, yet the Gryphon, not born of that world, remained dead. Now that Wonderland was safe to return to, a funeral would be held in his honour.

'I'll be there,' was all the wife of the hero said, while the child gave no more than a grimace.

That grimace remained on her face throughout the funeral. Now that Wonderland had regained its thin grass swaying, its streams gurgling, its wildlife teaming, the Gryphon had a serene place to rest. The wife knew her husband liked to walk in the Wonderland fields to be alone with his thoughts, so to have his memorial built in one of those fields lightened the funeral somewhat. She made an eulogy, as did the Mock Turtle, the White Rabbit and Alice herself, but the daughter remained silent.

When the funeral was over, the wife found herself speaking to the White Rabbit, the daughter scowling at him all the while. The Rabbit explained how he and a group of fellow Wonderland creatures were planning to fill the power vacuum left by the Queen. He thought he should fill the position of Wonderland's new ruler, being the member of the resistance with the most political knowledge, but he intended to leave the decision to the people. They wanted Alice to be the new Queen, but she had refused, wishing to spend more time in the real world.

The daughter remained silent.

That is, until she sent the White Rabbit stumbling backwards into a mud puddle.

Upon that, she laughed to herself, while her mother stared in surprise.

This behaviour continued over the next couple of weeks. The wife had tried to sit quietly in attempts to adjust to life without her husband, but the noises from the daughter's bedroom had made the house feel more cavernous. At school the child would pick fights with the other children, and the mother would receive complaints regarding those fights. Thus, the child was sent to her room as children are wont to do, and told to be quiet.

But she just wanted her daughter to be happy. It was the Gryphon's death, obviously it was that. She wasn't completely over it herself, but if her daughter was going to act like this...

What she needed was a friend.

Yes, her daughter had friends, didn't she? There was that friend she hadn't seen in years...she'd make things better. Maybe paying her a visit would lighten up her daughter's spirits somewhat. Help her forget what had happened.

So up the stairs went the wife and mother, a smile on her beak, her voice light and cheerful.

'Gilda?'

(April Fools! Hope you enjoyed this My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fic!)


End file.
